On Tuesday, BBC Radio 4 broadcast the second in an excellent two-part series, The Scars of Evolution, the like of which make them worth the entire licence fee on their own. Part 2 is still available on “Listen Again” on the BBC’s listen again page.
The two programs explore the theory that at some time in man’s development we went through a semi-aquatic stage. This is better explained in the article Aquatic Ape Theory (AAT), summarising Elaine Morgan’s theory and you might want to read that before listening to the programme.
AAT points out that most of the “enigmatic” features of human physiology, though rare or even unique among land mammals, are common in aquatic ones. If we postulate that our earliest ancestors had found themselves living for a prolonged period in a flooded, semi-aquatic habitat, most of the unsolved problems become much easier to unravel. There is powerful geological evidence to support this hypothesis, and nothing in the fossil record that is inconsistent with it.
Perhaps this explains our fascination with the water in general and angling in particular?
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Perhaps not. Check out my critique of the BBC Radio show. I’ve been examining the evidence for the aquatic ape theory for over a decade and it just doesn’t add up… not to mention the incredibly poor scholarship that’s been used to argue for it.
Comment by Anthrosciguy — September 14, 2005 @ 6:40 pm